Wednesday, February 01, 2023

Few Surprises for April

There was not much new in the April solicits that caught my eye, but that may be just as well after last month. I couldn't handle a constant barrage of new titles anyway. There'd be too many books to read.

A few things I'll at least mention. IDW's releasing a Rocketeer one-shot comprised of three stories. One story is written by the duo (Danny Bilson and Paul De Meo) who wrote the film and illustrated by Adam Hughes, and involves Amelia Earhart. Another teases that it'll be a Rocketeer and Indiana Jones team-up. The third is drawn by Jae Lee and involves the Rocketeer in a dogfight with a Zero. Which neatly solves the question I had about how they were going to make sure Jae Lee didn't have to draw any backgrounds. The entire issue will take place in the clouds, which suits his current tendency to draw every comic like it occurs in an endless foggy void perfectly!

Scout Comics has a book called Codename Ric Flair, which is about Ric Flair using his wrestling career as cover for being a secret agent. Well hell, we got a Bubba Ho-Tep comic that said Elvis had been fighting the supernatural years before that rest home, why not? But no, I don't think I'll be buying that.

The only other "new" thing is Grit N Gears. You may be thinking, "Calvin, you've mentioned that book for four months straight," and you'd be correct, but none of the issues have actually shown up, and they're re-soliciting it. Of course, they did the same thing with Ice Canyon Monster, and it's still a no-show four months later, so believe it when I see it.

The Mary Jane and Black Cat mini-series is ending, but everything else remains in progress. Unstoppable Doom Patrol, Hellcat, and Clobberin' Time will all be on their second issues. Liquid Kill and Fallen are up to issue 3. The former is using the same solicit as the previous two issues, while the latter says that other pantheons are getting involved in the murder, which is something, at least.

Immortal Sergeant and Darkwing Duck are on their fourth issue. One involves a father-child falling out, and the other a garden maze. I leave it to you to figure out which is which. Nature's Labyrinth is back after a month absence with the penultimate issue, promising J. will encounter her worst nightmare. No idea what that could be.

Fantastic Four and Deadpool are both at issue 6. Deadpool's still dating Valentine, good for him. West of Sundown is on issue 10, and it doesn't look like the Moreau arc is over yet, while Moon Knight # 22 might be giving Tigra a little spotlight. Fingers crossed!

And that's it. I didn't see any collections or manga that really jumped out at me. The main thing I notice in the first four months of 2023 is, no publisher other than Marvel's got much going for me. Marvel could be at 24 books by the end of April, and Scout could be alone in 2nd place with 5. That's if the last issue of Agent of WORLDE ever shows up. Lot of publishers getting a tiny piece of the money pie.

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